A study identified 26 new genome-wide significant loci, three of which contain integrin genes that encode molecules in pathways identified as important therapeutic targets in inflammatory bowel disease.

The associated variants are also correlated with expression changes in response to immune stimulus at two of these genes (ITGA4 , ITGB8 ) and at two previously implicated integrin loci (ITGAL , ICAM1 ).

In all four cases, the stimulus-dependent expression increasing allele also increases disease risk. It identified likely causal missense variants in the primary immune deficiency gene PLCG2 and the negative regulator of inflammation, SLAMF8 .